Mike Hesson has dismissed speculation that he had asked Babar Azam to consider taking up wicketkeeping in a bid to regain his place in Pakistan's T20I side.Reports had surfaced in recent days that the new Pakistan coach had told Babar, until recently a captain and mainstay in the T20I side, that he needed another skill to make him a more viable option at the top of the order. Babar has never kept wicket in his career, but Hesson was, in any case, categorical that Pakistan did not view him as a wicketkeeping option.

Babar was not part of Pakistan's last T20I squad for the home series against Bangladesh and is also not part of the squad that travels there for a return series later this month.The two series are the first under Hesson, as Pakistan look to reset their T20 batting approach under Salman Agha's captaincy. But Babar and his longtime opening partner Mohammad Rizwan are both part of a week-long training camp in Karachi with the selected squad.

Rizwan is also not part of the squad; as a long-time opening partnership, Babar and Rizwan's stock has fallen steadily over the last couple of years, with criticism growing around their low-risk approach, apparent lack of intent and low strike rates. "Firstly, Babar Azam is not seen as a wicketkeeping option, no," Hesson said. "Not sure where that came from, but I have heard that speculation. Babar is competing for one of the opening positions at the moment.

But obviously, we have Fakhar [Zaman] and Saim [Ayub] in those two roles at the moment, so he's competing for that." Hesson was asked again about Babar, in the context of batting strike rates, and said he wanted Pakistan to catch up with the rest of the world in their approach. "No doubt strike rate is important in T20 cricket but you have to combine it with a volume of runs," Hesson said. "There's a good reason why our ranking in T20 cricket is as low as it is, because our strike rates from a batting point of view are not high enough.

We certainly made some shifts in that last series to play a more expansive game of cricket and probably catch up with the rest of the world, as that is the way the modern game is. "Babar is one of many who have the ability to make those improvements. And I'm here to work with them and help them. In the last month or so, he's made some really good changes. It's not just a matter of going from 125 to 150, it's a matter of increasing what you can offer because we're no doubt often 30-40 runs short with the bat.

So, we need to find a way of getting that." Babar and Rizwan aren't the only big names on the outer as far as the team is concerned. Shaheen Shah Afridi, another member of the core that led Pakistan successively to last-four and runners-up finishes in the T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022, has also not been picked in recent Pakistan T20I sides. Afridi won a third PSL title in four seasons as captain of Lahore Qalandars in May, bowling well towards the end of the league. He is also at the camp, though not yet back in favour. 

"Shaheen Shah Afridi is a world-class player," Hesson said. "There's no doubt that we've identified some areas that Shaheen needs to work on, as does every player at this camp. But there's a good reason that he, and everybody else, is at this camp. They're in the wider frame for Pakistan in white-ball cricket and that includes T20 cricket. Players go through good periods and periods where they're a little bit down in their game.

And it's up to us as coaching staff to try and get our best players on the park and make them better, so when they play for Pakistan, they perform better. We certainly don't discount quality players, but we try and work with them to help them come back stronger."

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)